Escape Clause

SUBMISSIONS FOR ESCAPE CLAUSE

This is Ink Oink Art Inc.'s first annual speculative fiction anthology.

If you're looking for this, you probably know that the proper website is down today-- but here is most of the pertinent information.

Escape Clause:

Who we are: a predominantly, but not exclusively, Westcoast anthology of speculative stuff—fiction, poetry, and art. We’re published by Ink Oink Art Inc. and edited by Clélie Rich. Our splendiferous cover is by Thomas Anfield, and our interior illustrations by Lee Tockar. Our writers so far include award-winners Eileen Kernaghan, Linda De Meulemeester, and Rhea Rose. We’ve got space left, and we’re looking for new friends. Original unpublished work only, my lovelies.

What we want: short fiction (2000 to 5000) for which we will pay $200; and poems up to 50 lines in length, for which we will pay $50. We’re looking for character-driven pieces; for whimsical, absurdist, elegant, horrific, heart-felt, energetic, sad, scary pieces; for hard sf, sf with a bit of give in it, fantasy, and everything in between. Pick one or all of the above. If you’ve put your heart into it, we want to see it. Just respect the word limits.

How we want it: one story per submission please, or up to five poems; as an attachment only (not in the body of the message) in either Word or RTF, with your name/[PTY or FCT]/title in the heading, and send it winging through the ethers to escapeclauses@shaw.ca

Reading period: January 15th to February 28th 2009.

Who's publishing? Kit St. Germain, a writer/actor who lives in Vancouver B.C. and says:

In 2002, I self-published a novel. It was a real learning curve. One thing it taught me was that I wasn't the genius I thought I was, and that I had to find out what the real world rules were-- because everyone else was playing by them. Shortly after the book, I joined the writing group, Helix,(nothing to do with the former online magazine) and I've been there since. Not to put too fine a point on it, the ladies beat me up but-good, and I know I'm a far better writer for it. As I told the folks at Strange Horizons, these girls are so pithy they are practically an orange. I know, I know, I should've been in a writer's group for five years and THEN written a novel. Yes, yes, we're all sooo clever five years from now.

So here we are, I got an insurance reserve cheque and I thought: _Any idiot can renovate their kitchen. It takes god's own egg-splattered numpties to make books._ So that's what we're(I'm) doing. The main reason I want to do this, is that I am surrounded by utterly extraordinary people-- writers, actors, artists, and there are so many more I have met in the ethers. I want to establish the mother of all geeky kitchen parties and bonk a cover on it. And then do the same thing next year, and the next.

Already signed on are award winners Eileen Kernaghan(Helix), and Linda DeMeulemeester(winner of the Silver Birch award for the Secret of Grim Hill) New to me is Ari Goelman whose submission got me fired up all over again. (although I must emphasize that I am not editing, or choosing or anything) The prolific C. June Wolfe, author of 'Finding Creatures,' joins us, as does the charm queen, the ineffable Rhea Rose whose sense of humor and a dash of daredevil shines through everything she does.

Cleie Rich is everyone's go-to person to find out how a thing is really done-- She's an expert's expert, and now she's ours.

Thomas Anfield(cover) is a loquacious(He paints for a living, but people should be paying just to hear him talk) much loved local performance artist and a painter -- take a look at his site http://www.thomasanfield.com/

Lee Tockar is a fellow actor(have a look at the IMDB Movie base) who spends his bench time with his nose pressed into his sketchbooks meticulously handwriting children's stories and illustrating them with a skill to rival Maurice Sendak's-- I've known him ten years. He lives in luminous cocoon of creative electricity. I can't wait for everyone to meet him. I'm so glad we could get him while we can still afford him!

We will add to this site as we go along-- we'll be posting bios and things so keep an eye peeled(ick) and welcome to Escape Clause.